Why not rotate the ladder Bivy 90 degrees and have access to the boat hatches and the back storage. Slightly off center will balance your feet down and keep the boat from rocking. For long distance sailing it might be too much baggage and extra weight. I wonder if there is a lighter, less bulky substitute for the ladders?

Well, you've essentially got two options for a sleeping support - suspend it (hammock) or rest it on a platform (the Hakas). The hammock is light, not bulky and affords access to the hatches and rear cargo area, but it seems to be an unacceptable way of sleeping to a substantial number of people.However you orient it, the platform needs to be about 7' x 3' to support a bivvy (two Hakas, each 7' x 18"). The Hakas are useful in their own right when functioning as Hakas and their bulk doesn't intrude when the boat is underway. Whether they can be made much lighter than Stringy's aluminium option and still be strong enough we don't know. They certainly provide a more acceptable option for those who dislike hammocks ("groundlings" as we hammock dwellers call them). There's also the potential to add an extra Haka and make the platform wide enough to sleep two. Orienting them at right angles to the hull is an interesting concept. You'd need to lash them down, so they didn't see-saw when you got your weight too far up one end.

I finished making the second ladder haka. It's a bit narrower and lighter- just on 4kg. I was able to try a first on water test of setting them up as a camping platform. This video gives some idea of the process (which can be improved! )

I anchored in about 2' of water and was very pleased with the way the Cooper anchor held in the sand against wind and current.I managed to set the bivvy up pretty easy. The hardest part was threading the cross over hoops.

I need to change a couple of things. I realised too late that I should have fixed the foot end first. That way it's easier to tension without leaning out over the foot hoop trying to reach the stern fixing point.The way the haka are fixed to the aka bars could be improved. I'm going to swap the tube clips with a hook at the front that goes over the aka horizontally so that the tramps aren't pierced. I'll move the tube clips to the rear. That should avoid any cantilevered see sawing.The platform was very comfortable. In fact you could assemble the bivvy, then stow it out of the way and cook dinner etc. The combination of Haka and tramps gives you plenty of storage space.More to come...

Last edited by stringy on Thu Feb 28, 2013 5:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hey mate, very impressive. What was the 'real' time for the whole setup ? Not the Benny Hill time ! You got so excited towards the end that the lens fogged up ( or did you slip on the romantic soft focus lens to set the mood ).

Funny, but I was close to putting The Benny Hill theme as the soundtrack. It was a bit of a comedy of errors. Not only did I forget to grab the drybag before positioning the haka I got the bivvy poles mixed up As well as the GoPro fogging up it also shut off too soon. I did manage to get the bivvy tighter! Set up time (including errors) was just over 10mins. I reckon once I sort the haka fixing out and practice the bivvy assembly a bit more it will be closer to 5mins. The Black Wolf bivvy is a bit fiddly with its cross over poles.A swag may be a better option.

Well done! Excellent bivy platform. Stringy, do you intend to use the hakas as an accessory to the tramps? Or, will you use the tramps/haka combo only when you camp on the AI? Since you were in 2' of water, you could have set everything up w/o using the tramps, yes? My thinking is that the hakas substitute for the tramps as NOHUHU is doing. What is your take?

Keith

_________________2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein

I also wonder why assembly could not always be done while standing in shallow water. Is there any regulation against this?

There probably is a regulation for it NOHUHU, there seems to be a regulation for everything else. But I doubt that you could be pinged for something that trivial. I setup the hammock over on the sand islands at the weekend and found out that nobody actually owns them. Not even the Aboriginals. They are man made. Built from the blood sweat and tears of some dredge workers years ago. So finally we have a place to go where we won't get a visit from some muppet with a note pad. It's OK I always tell them my name is Stringy anyway.

Stringy - I've seen a different style of Black Wolf bivvy with the loop frame just around the head and upper body only and the rest is like a gortex sleeping bag. At least I think it was a Black wolf.

I can see a race looming. I filmed my hammock erection as well and I think the times are going to be pretty similar at around the 5 minute mark. ( note to self: double check that I have put the word hammock in this sentence before posting )

Yeah, I've always thought a swag would be more suitable. They're a good bit heavier than bivys, but that hardly matters when you're not humping them on your back.You could probably leave the mast up and use it instead of the ridge pole.This model is 75cm wide. As a double it's only 142cm wide, so at a pinch, you would only need one more ladder segment to support it.

I read this thread last winter and have been wanting to try out setting up a tent. I did it out of necessity because all of the beaches were submerged by high water. It worked beautifully. It was much like sleeping in a recliner, with the butt comfortably against hull (not in the forward well). I also had an old-fashioned sleeping pad that is about twice as thick as the usual. I filled the front well with lifejackets to support my legs. I secured tent loops to the forward ama with a bungy because of high winds. No bugs, and no worries for finding flat locations and no worries of water level changes (a big issue on this trip).

YakAttaque

Last edited by YakAttaque on Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Looks comfortable with room to stretch out YakAttaque. No worries about the tide coming in or uneven camping spots.

I never posted my setup in this thread so here is a haka solution using my previous AI. (the towel under the akas was because I had just painted the akas in prep for selling this AI)

I plan on using this setup in the watertribe everglades challenge in 2013. No worries about finding a place to sleep. My plan is to have one tramp that I'll deploy after moving both hakas to one side. The tramp will be my staging area where I unload and open up the tent and related sleeping gear without dropping them into the water.

A side loading one person tent is practical for this configuration so I use my backpacking Big Agnes copper spur ul1. Very strong and lightweight. It's not big inside but perfect size for hakas.

Folding it back certainly is the difficult part! My tent came with photos and texts instead of the drawings which followed yours. I got serious problems. The description was quite bad and the pictures possibly reversed (or it was written "right" when it should have been "left"). So as you I had to think for a fairly long time to realize how it possibly could be done.

Without any text your descriptions are certainly not better than those I have. Picture 3: Rotate the tent. Picture 4-6: Bend down the upper bows and bend them a long way inwards. Picture 7-8: Can you see that you now almost have three rings, with two up and one in the bottom? Bend one of the upper rings above the other while keeping the lower ends of the bows from slipping out. You might have to use your left knee to prevent the lower ends of the upper bows/rings from slipping out!

Perhaps it takes me a minute to take down the tent. With further training it could be done even faster.